Obstacles to change

  • getting started
  • impulsivity
    • consequences only later
  • procrastination
  • forgetfulness
  • lack of motivation
  • confidence (lack of)
  • conformity

Nudging

  • leaders are choice architects
    • who gets how much remuneration
    • how many meetings are you doing and what about
  • also public leaders like politicians are choice architects
  • people love being asked for their opinion

“any aspect of the choice architecture that alters people’s behavior in a predictable way without forbidding any options or significantly changing their economic incentives”

Choice architecture

  • descriptions, procedures and other context factors
  • Decoy Effect

Predicted effect

  • I want my nudge to do something

Rationality Neutral

  • Incentive Scheme stays the same, but the environment is changing
  • decision maker has still autonomy
  • a nudge is “easy and cheap to avoid”

Ladder of interventions

  • do nothing, just monitor
    • people feeling watched
  • provide information
  • enable choice
  • changing the default option Nudging
  • incentives (give money)
  • disincentives (fines)
  • restrict choice (harder)
  • eliminate choice (impossible)

Upsides

  • we are great at comparing, not at pinpointing exact prices
  • the default option is very important
    • any additional effort can be forgotten or not done at all

Downsides

  • descriptive norm … what people are doing now

  • injunctive norm … what people are supposed to do

  • effects are highly contextually

  • effects might be tiny

  • effects may not last

  • backfiring may be possible

Boosting

  • creating competence, so people make better decisions for themselves